Frozen Synapse: Soundtrack Edition

I dug strategy/futuresports robo-tournament Frozen Endzone, but while I’m well aware it’s just in beta form for now I’m very much in need of more personality (and in the game, etc) and variety if I’m to be in it for the long haul. Fortunately devs Mode 7 have detailed their plans for the game’s first major update, and it sounds as though they’ll be tackling HAHA LIKE IN SPORT quite a few of grumbles I grumbled its way, grumblily. (more…)

Frozen Endzone is a primarily multiplayer turn-based strategy game about robots playing American Football. Calling it the result of XCOM and Speedball having one hot night together wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate, but it has rather more in common with its acclaimed predecessor, Frozen Synapse. Its beta is out today.>

Yes, yes, Friendzone, Cold Arse, jolly good, we’ve all giggled about it enough times now. I’m going to give you thirty seconds to get it all out of your system.

(I really would have changed the game name if I were Mode 7, but I do admire their resolve). (more…)

Are you ready for some hard-hitting, neon-sweat-slick (but not like in those silly Gatorade commercials) eSports? I mean that literally, too: Frozen Synapse developer Mode 7 has devised its very own electronic sport. Balls are thrown, touchdowns are scored, lives are at stake>. OK, maybe not so much that last one, but that’s not to say that Frozen Endzone is a total departure from Frozen Synapse’s simultaneous turn-based battle of wits and weaponry. For one, it reprises the latter’s brand of two-steps-ahead-or-else-you’re-dead strategy, and also an inordinate number of things are blue. Something for everyone! Watch it in action and learn about the right-around-the-corner beta below.

Frozen Endzone, Mode 7′s futuro-sports game that I would like to take on the cheeky little nickname of Frozone, is not out yet. For the people who want to play it this a problem on many levels. I sympathise, and at least have some news that’ll excite and thrill you. Frozone’s beta is about to go public, and you’ll be able to buy into it sometime in November. When in November? No idea. This November? I am 99% certain the November they mention in the press release is this November. Anyone buying a copy will receive an extra copy of the full game when it’s released, a generous trick they pulled with Frozen Synapse. (more…)

If I’ve learned anything throughout my years as a connoisseur of knowledge, it’s that charity is a relentless beast. It looked at the mountain of games I’ve yet to play from the last Humble Bundle, scoffed, and said “That’s it?” Well, it did in my head, at least. But I’m sure if the Humble Bundle with Android 6 were sentient, that’s what it would say.

The latest bundle of humbleness may have “Android” in the name, but that doesn’t mean we PC folk can’t enjoy the spoils. The Humble Bundle with Android 6 includes Stealth Bastard Deluxe, Aquaria, Fractal, Pulse (which is sadly Android-only), and Organ Trail: Director’s Cut. You may have to re-read the name of that last game.

As always, the Humble Bundle costs whatever you choose to pay, though throwing in a buck or more will net you Steam keys for each game along with the DRM-free direct download you normally get. Being more charitable than the average penny-pincher (who as of now pays $4.69) earns you Frozen Synapse and Broken Sword: Director’s Cut as well.

This Humble Bundle ends on July 2 at 4 pm, so you have plenty of time if you decide to divvy up your cash to developers or charities that strike your fancy.

Crossplay used to be what happened to me when I played Team Fortress 2, but after a restraining order from my mouse pad and some anger management classes, I no longer feel the need to be angry at Pyros. Now the world has moved on, the word has taken on a new meaning: what happens when one gaming system and another defy all cultural boundaries and work together. Frozen Synapse is about to do just that with its iPad version: you’ll be able to play multiplayer across the PC and the iPad, and if you own both versions then you can continue your game you were playing on whatever system you have at hand. Toilet time just got tactical. (more…)

In an update to tactical turn-based sports game Frozen Endzone's Greenlight page, Mode 7's Paul Taylor reveals some of the features being added to the game. Currently, the team are working on new multiplayer modes, variable pitch and score zone sizes, team customisation and a second stadium. They're also working on narrative scenarios. Here's hoping we'll be involved in intense negotiations with our robo-squads over the quality of their half-time cups of oil.

"One of the problems I have with a lot of sports or sports-style games is that they can be a bit dry and stats-based," Taylor writes. "By having some more characterisation and a greater feeling of stuff happening in the world, I think we can create a more interesting atmosphere."

Currently he's planning a "Coach's office" - comparable to the map screen of Frozen Synapse - in which players could talk to other coaches and receive emails from characters.

As for the alternate game mode, while it's being kept secret for now, Taylor says, "I think a lot of you will like it - and we discussed some of the possibilities we want to include for custom games with different rule-sets today."

For more on Frozen Endzone, check out out huge announcement interview. The game's starting whistle is due to blow in 2014.

As well as pointing my tragically non-robotic eyes at robot futuresports / strategy game Frozen Endzone last week, I also had a long natter with Mode 7 founders Ian Hardingham and Paul Taylor about their follow-up to the splendid Frozen Synapse. Read on for its origin story, how it’s not really like American Football, their roguelike-like plans for the game’s singleplayer mode, inevitable comparisons to Blood Bowl and Speedball, and Luigi fanfic.> (more…)

Frozen Endzone is a turn-based futuresports game from the creators of asynchronous strategy game Frozen Synapse. I went to see it last week. I drove there in a car and everything. I returned with the following words and thoughts.>

I was anxious, worried, scared: this I will admit. Me, a 5’6″, nebbish man of words and screens whose strongest-ever investment in sport was playing badminton once a week for a year, on my way to see a game ostensibly about American Football? Out of my depth, surely. I read a Wikipedia page about American football before I set off to visit Frozen Synapse, and now Frozen Endzone, developers Mode 7 in their Oxfordshire studio, but it only made me more confused.

Turns out I needn’t have worried. Frozen Endzone is sports in theme only – in practice it’s turn-based strategy, and a natural heir to the men vs men tactical gunplay of Frozen Synapse despite its complete lack of metal tubes which go bangbangbang. (more…)